Blind-stitch overseaming-machine.



No. 705,486. Patented July 22, I902.

' B. W. TUCKER.

BLINDSTITCH UVERS EAMING MACHINE.

' [Application filed Mar. 22, 1900.

3 Sh'eets-Sheet I,

(Nb Model.)

g WITNESSES:

/NVENTO/? fiayhmzh Wm A TTOHN E Y m: NORRIS PETERS go mop-mac" msvmcmm mi.

Patented July 22,1902.

B. W. TUCKEB. BLINDSTITCH OVERSEAMING MACHINEQ (Application filed Marf22, 1800;)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(N0 Mddel.)

A TTOHN E Y WITNESSES:

3 v Patented July 22, I902. B.,W TUCKER. BLINDSTITCH OVERSEAM ING MACHINE.

(Application' filed. 1m. 22, 1900.

, 3 Sheets-Sheet 3';

(No Model.)

N VE N 7'01? fieizjallzlka if BIC/J61" Wig-1U A TTOHNE Y fUNITEn {STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN W. TUCKER, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO CHARLES C. GILL,

on NEW YORK, N. Y.

BLIND-STITCH OVERSI IAMING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 705,486, dated July 22, 1902.

, Application filed March 22, 1900- SerialNo. 9,654. (No model.)

To all whom it 17mg concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN W. TUCKER, a citizen of the United States,'and 'a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New J ersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in sewing-machines and it consists in the novel features, arrangement, and combinations of parts hereinafter described, and more ularly pointed out in the claims.

The invention pertains more particularly to the feed mechanism of the machine, and in the present instance is illustrated as forming a part of a blind-stitch overseaming-machine of the character shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 639,669, granted December, 19, 1899, to Charles A. Dearborn, Jerome W.'Hyde, and Charles T. Clark.

The object of the invention is to provide a feed mechanism between which and the presser-foot or equivalent device the fabric to be sewed is fed, and which feed mechan ism shall havea yielding part or parts, so that said mechanism may adapt itself to the inequalities of thickness in the material which may be delivered to the machine. For instance, in blinds'titching the lower edges of trousers-legs, skirts, a'nd'other garments it is necessary that-thefabric be' properly held to receive the needle and-thread and permit the formation of the loop,"and great difficulties have arisen in the seaming of such garments, since the edge fold and vertical seams therein when passing below the presserfoot create unequal thicknesses, which with the ordinary feed mechanism heretofore known interfere withthe prop'er formation of the stitches and the operation ofthe needle and loop er. It is the purpose of my invention to overcome these difficulties arising from the unequal thicknesses of the fabric,

and to this end'I present a feed mechanism of which onesection is self-adjustable to the fabric, While at'all timesmaintaining a firm conta'ct'therewith'. In its preferred formfor a blindstitching-machine the feed mechanism will comprise a two-part disk having a cone-shaped periphery for contact with the particyielding to the inequalities in the thickness 7 of the fabric.

The invention will be. fully understood from the detailed description hereinafter presented, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a sewing-machine having feed mechanism constructed in accordance With and embodying the invention. Fig. 2 is a top view of a front portion of same. Fig. 3 is an end view, looking at the left-hand side of the machine, of the feed mechanism with the presser-foot in position thereon. Fig. 4 is a central vertical section of same on the dotted line44 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a detached end view of the feed-shaft. Fig. 6 is a detached top View of a shoe forming part of the feed mechanism. Fig. 7 is an end view of same. Fig. 8 is a side elevation of same. Fig. 9 is an inner face view of one of the sections of the feed disk or wheel. Fig. 10 is a central vertical section of same on the dotted line 10 10 of Fig. 9, and Fig. 11 is a detached side elevation of a block located on the feed-shaft intermediate the sections of the feed disk or wheel and upon which the outer section of the feed disk or wheel has its yielding movement.

In the drawings, designates the bed-plate of the machine; 21 the usual yieldingly-hinged front plate of the machine, 22 the rigid presserfoot, 23 the rock-shaft, 24 an oscillatory arm connected .with said rock-shaft and carrying the needle 25, and 26 the looper-rod, carrying the looper 27, all of said parts being substantially of the character illustrated in the aforesaid Patent No. 639,669 and actuated by the mechanism therein described.

The present specification willbe confined to the feed mechanism of the machine, such mechanism being the only novel part of the machine shown. p

v The feed-shaft is -designated by the numeral 28 and derives its power from the main driving-shaft of the machine, and the said feed shaft is mounted in bearings 29 29, formed in the hinged front plate 21 of the machine, said plate 21 constituting the main feed-frame. The plate 21 is mounted upon the shaft 30 and has the-downwardly-extending rear arm 31, connected with a spring 32, by which the main bodyof the plate 21, with the feed-shaft 28, is yieldingly held upward in a well-known manner.

At the left-hand end of the feed-shaft 28 is mounted the feed wheel or disk, comprising the sections 33 34, each section having at its peripherythe upwardly and inwardlyinclined flange 35, which flanges meet at the central line of the disk or wheel and constitutea coneshaped periphery for the latter, as more clearlyillustrated in Fig. 4, said periphery being adapted to the formation of the lower surface of the rigid presser-foot 22. The section 33 is pinned to the feed-shaft 28 and may therefore be termed a main feed device, while the section 34 is mounted upon said shaft, but may have a vertically-yielding movement irrespective of said shaft, and said. section 34 may therefore be termed an auxiliary feed device. The sections 33 and 34 of the feed wheel or disk form between them a chamber within which, on an elongated portion 36 of the shaft 28, is mounted the block 37, (shown in detail in Fig. 11,) which block contains the elongated opening 39 to pass upon the sides of the elongated portion 36 (see Fig. 5) of the shaft 28, so that said block 37 shall rotate with the shaft 28, but may have a sliding motion at the same time upon the elongated portion 36 of said shaft. The block 37 at one side engages the inner face of the section 34 of the feed wheel or disk, said section 34 being provided at its inner side with the shoulders 4O 40, between which said block 37 is located and adapted to slide without losing its engagement with said shoulders 40. Between the shoulders 40 40 is formed substantially a slideway fitting upon the block 37, and hence two motions are permitted, one being the sliding of the section 34 upon the block 37 and the other being the sliding of the block 37 upon the elongated portion 36 of the shaft 28. The aperture through the center of the section 34 is greater than the diameter of the shaft within said aperture, and hence said aperture aids in permitting the section 34 to have its vertically-yielding motion independently of said shaft.

Upon the left-hand end of the shaft 28 is provided the washer or disk 41, which keeps the section 34 up against the section 33 and also preserves the contact of the inner surface of the section 34 with the adjoining surface of the block 37.

The sections 33 and 34 rotate with the feedshaft 28, the section 33 being pinned to said shaft, and the block 37 being, in effect, keyed to the section 34 and being compelled to rotate with the shaft 28.

The section 33 is substantially rigid with the shaft 28 and may yield downward with said shaft and the front plate 21, while the section 34 may not only yield downward with the shaft 28 and front plate 21, but is also capable of yielding downward independently of said shaft 28 and front plate 21. The section 34 is kept in its upward position by means of the shoe 42 and spring43, the shoe 42 thus constituting an auxiliary spring-supported frame and being pivotally secured to the hanger 44, suspended from the shaft 28, as shown in Fig. 4. The shoe 42 extends below the feed disk or wheel and at its outer end is formed with the curved section 45, within which are mounted the bearing-wheels 46 46 to contact with the annular rim 47, formed at the outer edges of the section 34, as more clearly illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. Intermediate the lower end of the hanger 44 and a partition 48, constituting a portion of the shoe 42, is interposed the coiled spring 43, which exerts an outward tension against said partition 48, and therefore operates to keep the curved section 45 of said shoe pressed upward to ward the section 34, whereby the bearingwheels 46 are enabled to normally hold the said section 34 in its upward position against the resistance of the presser-foot 22.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that the front plate 21, shaft 28, and feed wheel or disk composed of the sections 33 34 are pressed upward by means of the spring 32 and that the section 34 of the feed-wheel has an independent upward pressure imparted to it through the medium of the spring 43 and shoe 42, the said section 34 being also adapted to yield downward while performing its rotation, owing to the shoe 42 being hinged and the fact that the block 37 may slide on the shaft 28 and that the section 34 may slide on the block 37. In instances in which the fabric between the feed wheel or disk :and the presser-foot 22 is of uniform thickness the sections 33 and 34 of said feed wheel or disk will remain in the position in which they are illustrated in Fig. 4 and rotate as though they are in one integral piece. \Vhen, however, the fold at the edge of the garment is being stitched, the folded portion of the fabric will lie between the presser-foot 22 and section 33, while the single thickness of fabric will lie intermediate the presser-foot 22 and section 34, with the result that an increased thickness of the fabric would be upon one portion of the feedwheel and a thin portion upon the other part of the said feed-wheel, and under this condition the best results of the machine cannot be attained unless the section 34 is capable of independently moving upward to compensate for the inequality of the thickness of the fabric.

In sewing the fold at the edge of a garment an inequality of thickness in the fabric will arise when the vertical seams in the garment pass between the feed device and the presser-foot, andzwith the use'of the present invention the sections or parts of the feed mechanism will adapt themselves automatically to the irregularity in thickness caused by the vertical hem'or seam in the garment during the pa'ssageof the latter between the feed device and the presser-foot.

The front plate 21, carrying the feed-shaft 28, is yielding, and hence the feed-shaft and the sections or parts of the feed mechanism have a primary yielding motion; but in addition to this primary yielding motion one of the sections or parts of the feed mechanism, in accordance with my invention, has a secondary or independent yielding action. The seam in the fabric is of course formed on the line of sewing, and this line of sewing is on the line of division between the sections 33 and 34 of the feed-wheel. Thus when one of the sections of the feed-wheel is independently yielding the said wheel is capable of exerting its pressure against the fabric, notwithstanding the irregularities in the thickness in the latter, since one part of said wheel will accommodate itself to the thickness above it, while the other part of the wheel, carried by the shaft 28, will perform its usual duty and yieldingly remain against the fabric.

The section 34 of the feed-wheel is illustrated as being at the outer side of the section 33 of said wheel; but the said sections 33 34 may be reversed with relation to one another, so that the section 33 would be at the outer side of the section 34, in which instance the section 34 would yield downward to the greater thickness of fabric then above it instead of moving upward to the less thickness of fabric which is above it in use when said section 34 is at the outer end of the feedshaft 28. It isamatterof choice whether the sections'33 and 34 are arranged as shown in Fig. 4 or reversed in position, with the section 33 at theouter side of the section 34. The operation in either instance is the same, since the parts or sections of the feed mechanism would in either case automatically adapt themselves to the varying thicknesses of fabric which might be supplied to the machine.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a sewing-machine having a needle, looper and presser foot, the hinged front plate, the spring pressing said plate toward the presser-foot, and the feed-shaft carried by said plate, combined with'the feed-wheel on said shaft to cooperate with and press the fabric against said foot, said wheel comprising sections'one of which is rigid on said shaftand yielding therewith and the other of which is adapted to yield independently the form of the lower surface of said foot said wheel comprising sections meeting at the center of said annular formation and one of which is adapted to yield independently of the other to compensate for inequalities in the thickness of the fabric supplied to the machine; substantially as set forth.

3. In a sewing-machine, the yielding feedshaft, and the cooperating rotatable wheelsections thereon and adapted to rotate therewith, one of said sections being capable of independent yielding action while performing its rotation; substantially as set-forth.

4. In a sewing-machine, the yielding feedshaft, and the cooperating rotatable wheelsections thereon and adapted to rotate therewith, combined with the hinged shoe engaging one of said sections, the spring acting against said shoe, and the slidable slotted block intermediate said sectionsand engaging parallel shoulders on said section acted 7 upon bysaid shoe; substantially as set forth.

5. In a sewing-machine, the needle, looper and presser-foot, the latter being recessed upon its operative surface, combined with the yielding feed mechanism comprising sections or'parts one of which is adapted to yield independently of the other section or part and which sections at their meeting edges conform to the said operative surface of said foot; substantially as set forth.

6. In a sewing-machine, the needle, looper and presser-foot, the latter being recessed upon its operative surface, combined with yieldingly-supported feed mechanism conforming to said foot and comprising rotatable sections or parts one of whichis capable of independent yielding action; substantially as set forth.

Signed atNew York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 20th day of March, A. D. 1900.

BENJAMIN W. TUCKER.

Witnesses:

CHAS. O. GILL, GUNDER GUNDERSON. 

